Heavy snow caused a traffic jam on Italy’s A22 highway, with thousands of cars getting caught up in the chaos.
Queues on the road connecting northeastern Italy to Austria reached 16 kilometres, according to a spokesperson for the firefighters of the autonomous province of Bolzano.
Extreme weather had caused several heavy vehicles to swerve, blocking traffic.
Firefighters attended the scene to rescue people who had been trapped in their vehicles in bitter temperatures for hours.
Some traffic started moving again in the late afternoon, but many vehicles remained trapped.
Vehicles were still stuck on the highway on Sunday, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
No casualties were reported.
An avalanche struck the same highway on Saturday morning, but no vehicles were present on the stretch of road affected.
